The Preppy And The Trout

Here’s the book that was mentioned in the comments thread on the Sweet Briar post. “The Preppy And The Trout” by Richard Reichardt was published (self-published?) in 2011. The synopsis reads:

Set in the glamorous resort town of Sun Valley/Ketchum, Idaho, the story revolves around a young, insecure, former lacrosse star who owns a fly-fishing shop, his demanding preppy wife, and a bungling older Ivy League man who’s recently moved west to escape his troubles by trout fishing.

“But as she predicted, people did start reacting differently to him. It wasn’t anything earth-shaking, but Eric did become aware of the positive way others reacted to him. He felt they could no longer tell if he was poor, or just a rich guy out slumming. You know, showing the proletariat some respect. By wearing the same clothes as a preppy, a curtain of ambiguity settled over him – the purpose of camouflage being to blur the line between fact and fiction. The mere substitution of khakis for jeans, crocodile shirts for t-shirts, Scottish Shetland wool crewnecks for sweatshirts, and new navy boat shoes for beat-up tennis shoes did generate an abrupt shift in the perception of others. The whole idea, he concluded, was to look rich without trying. And in a weird way, he sometimes felt the clothes wore him, and never vice-versa, and they remolded his head, tongue and heart to their liking. She told him the clothes would make him feel more civilized, and he did perceive a subtle change underway.”

“It is both delusional and stupid to think that clothes don’t really matter and we should all wear whatever we want. Most people don’t take clothing seriously enough, but whether we should or not, clothes do talk to us and we make decisions based on people’s appearances.”
—G. Bruce Boyer